Private Arthur Edwin Anderson
663303
Born Acton, ON 1898
Enlisted with 164th Battalion (Lorne Scots)
Served with 116th Battalion
Killed in Action at Cambrai on Oct 1, 1918
Twas the depths of winter…the last day of January in the year 1918. The days were short, the nights endless and unless you parked yourself in front of the hearth in the family farmhouse, it was guaranteed that any body part that remained unclad was going to freeze. It was cold…blistering cold. Yet, when the glow of the sun finally illuminated his bedroom that morning, he bound from his bed with eager joy. Why? Because, finally the day had come…His day. He had looked forward to it for a long time and neither the depressing crest of frost on the window pane nor the fact that he could still see his breath could keep him in bed for it was Arthur Edwin Anderson’s 18th birthday…the day he not only became a adult but it also was the day he would become a soldier.
While it was a good chance that many of his school mates from his hometown of Acton Ontario had already signed up…some by already reaching the required age of 18 years, others stretching the truth on their attestation forms. There may be more to his story, however the details behind that day have been lost to the sands of time. Arthur Anderson was the second son of a farmer, William Dutton Anderson. As was the case in those days, the children of farmers represented a free labour force. Running a farm as a business required help and Arthur’s strong hands and back would be missed if he chose to enlist in the war effort. Thus, his decision to pick the 31st of January as the day he travelled into town to sign his name in ink may not only have been his first decision as an adult, it was also a statement to his parents that from that day forward he was going to make his own decisions.
Arthur enlisted in the 164th Halton and Dufferin Battalion. This battalion was perpetuated by the Lorne Scots (Peel, Dufferin and Halton Regiment). The Lorne Scots date back to 1866 and have acted as a regional militia regiment up to their participation in the Great War. Today they are the primary infantry regiment of the Canadian Army. Despite enlisting in early 1916, Arthur would remain in Canada training to become a soldier for over a year. Just days after Canada executed their successful attack in the Battle of Vimy Ridge, Arthur jumped aboard the SS Carpathia landing in England on the 22nd of April 1917. He would then spend almost another full year continuing this training regimen in England and only arrived in France when he was transferred to the 116th Battalion on March 8th 1918.
Despite arriving in France at the onset of the great German Spring Offensive, Arthur’s training regimin would continue unabated. The next five months would consist of more time spent learning how to march, relearning how to shoot a rifle and more time spent learning how to poke a sandbag dressed up like a German with a bayonet…however while he could hear the din of the colossal artillery barrages in the distance he would still not get his chance to fire his rifle in anger. Truthfully, he, and the majority of the men of the 116th Battalion, spent more time practicing their pitching and hitting on the diamond than patrolling trenches looking for Krauts to kill. Yet, as the summer drew to a close on August 8th 1918 Arthur finally got his chance to experience the horrors of war first-hand.
The experience of Private Arthur Anderson was shared by many young boys and men in the CEF. By the time 1918 arrived, the CEF had endured a significant number of casualties from the battles of 1917…including Vimy Ridge, Hill 70 and Passchendaele. The Spring of 1918 represented a time where new soldiers were sent to replace the ones who had fallen…and there were many, many of them. Some of these lads did not make it past their first day fighting at Amiens. Many others would fall in the Battles of 2nd Arras at the Scarpe, Drocourt-Queant and specifically Boiry Notre Dame for the 116th. For those who survived…or whom were ‘plug-and-play’ replacements inserted into the various Battalions on the fly, the next objective for the Battalion was the Canal du Nord and the strategically important city of Cambrai.
On the 29th of September, the 116th was tasked to take out the German trenches that protected the approaches to the town of Ste Olle, situated just outside Cambrai. The attack went disastrously from the onset with both A and B Companies of the 116th being virtually wiped. Being in one of the support of reserve Companies, he would have been one of the men who personally saw the bloodbath which took the lives of 92 men from the Battalion. With only one day to rest, the survivors were gathered, reconstituted into a 3 Company unit and on the 1st of October sent right back out there. Placing the last day of his life into perspective helps to better appreciate the effort, the bravery, courage and determination that Arthur exhibited on that fateful day. In the morning, he was able to successfully wade through the immense shellfire enfilade that protected the Douai-Cambrai roads. He followed this up somehow following the line of men and making it through a barrage of blistering machine gun positions. Finally, Arthur was one of the survivors who took up positions in a wood facing the the village of Ramillies situated on the north-west outskirts of Cambrai. It was here where the Germans zeroed in on their position and killed him instantly with am array of whizz-bangs. He had come so far, prepared for so long and yet after a harrowing series of attack upon attack upon attack…this ever-eager farmer’s sons’ life and service would come to and end. A story to be told…Remember him.